FERT
FERT, also an acronym of the Kingdom of Italy's motto FERT, is a global criminal and terrorist organisation that features heavily in the story Pick Up The Pieces, set fifteen years after the devastating global Apocalypse featured in Apocalypse Now. Led by the enigmatic Lord Hood, the organisation features as the main antagonists of Pick Up The Pieces. It is a vast international organisation with its own facilities, safe houses, and operations. Notably, FERT is not aligned to any nation or nationality, despite the fact that it has Savoyard insignia plastered all over it. History Long, long ago, perhaps millennia, five people found immortality. Of course, in the world of the supernatural, there are many kinds of immortality. Whatever the case, these five people became learned in the martial arts, becoming skilled in their field. Then they departed, back to their mother countries. They used their powers for ill; they gained power and influence in their lands. Eventually they united their syndicates into a vast organisation that stretched across the world. In the 19th century, a member of the ruling family of the Savoyards discovered the same immortality they did. Henceforth, he politically manuevered his way into the organisation, eventually even acceeding to the top of the organisation, and outdoing the Five. He became known as Lord Hood, the Ruling Hand, and the Five as his fingers. And thus the organisation that had worked in the shadows for so long transformed into its current incarnation, FERT. Ideology FERT's motives are extremely complex. Its surface goals appear to be commercial enterprise- they have significant involvement in a majority of criminal enterprises, such as human trafficking, the drug trade, arms dealing, and various other nefarious exploits. For example, they used James Bradley's company to launder heroin through the streets of New York. However, FERT's true motives appear to be influenced by its five leaders, the highest-ranking members of their organisation. They often operated independently of each other, and on one occasion, opposed one another. Nevertheless, they worked towards the same goal of world domination and/or immense soft power, even if each of the five used different methods. FERT's organisational discipline is notoriously draconian, as shown by James' remark, "This organisation does ot tolerate failure." It exacts swift executions on those who fail it. Furthermore, to heighten the impact of the executions, it often focuses on an innocent member, making it appear that their death is imminent, before turning around and killing the actual person, catching them off-guard. Nevertheless, FERT is known for its ruthless efficiency, so executions are extremely rare. The strict codes of loyalty and silence, and the hard retributions that followed violations are hallmarks of the organisations it has either subsumed, such as the yakuza, the Triads, the American, Italian, Russian, and Sicilian Mafia, and others. Headquarters FERT has no truly 'central' operating base. They have a regional operating center for every continent. However, the center located in Dune, Africa seems to be the place where their leaders have a tendency to congregate. Thus, the facility in Dune can be compared their 'base of operations,' though it is no more important than the other centres. Nevertheless, FERT's leaders showed distaste when it was destroyed, showing that maybe they favored it more than the other centres. The regional centres themselves were often used as the singular lairs of individual high-ranking FERT operatives, such as the North American base being used by Ellis, the European one favorited by White, the base in Australia utilised by Frost, or the South American base being inhabited by Baines. Hierarchy FERT, in its present incarnation, was created by the enigmatic Lord Hood, who appears as a black laptop. Since Lord Hood does not appear to exert a physical influence within the organisation, it falls to the highest-ranking members of FERT to carry out Hood's commands; naturally, they are the five highest ranking members of FERT, collectively called 'the Board' by other FERT members. FERT's internal hierarchy is hard to determine, but there seem to be intermediate and higher levels of the organisation. It's mentioned by James that outside rank means nothing to FERT, as a king or president would have to obey to a beggar if they stood higher than them and gave the correct signs. The five highest members of FERT went by numbers (e.g. Number 2) as codenames. Their numbers were assigned at random, and rotated by two digits every month to avoid detection. For example, Mr. White was assigned 'Number Four', while Ms. Baines was assigned 'Number Five.' By deliberately drawing attention from the true leader of the organisation, that confuses those who would attempt to infiltrate FERT, protecting Lord Hood's identity. In addition, it also helps to serve to confuse the enemies of the Board members themselves. Despite being given numbers, the highest-ranking FERT members that aren't Board members do know their names, although it's widely suspected that even these names are false. Although FERT's highest members operated individually of each other, Mr. White seemed to be the highest-ranking (or at least the highest-respected), as evidenced by the nickname among FERT's higher-ups for him- 'the Pale King', and also by the fact that they came to the Dune base at his call. Even Amitiel, an angel, who joined FERT was subject to its rank, a position he chafed underneath. Members Arms of the House of Savoy.svg.png|Lord Hood (disguise) Mr. White.jpg|Mr. White Mr. Ellis.jpg|Mr. Ellis Rin.jpg|Ms. Baines Archer.png|Mr. Frost Jack Harkness.jpg|Mr. Dandy Kilgrave.jpg|Theodore Greene Omar bin Saleh.png|Omar bin Saleh Artoria!.png|Artoria Pendragon Matsuda.PNG|Matsuda Murakami Index!.jpg|Angelica Brunswick James bradley.jpg|James Bradley remitonov.jpg|Remitonov Kelly Kimball.jpg|Kelly Kimball Patrick.jpg|Patrick Elaine Ingall.jpg|Elaine Salvatore Mordred.png|Mordred Oda Nobunaga.jpg|Oda Nobunaga Some guy.jpg|Nguyen Trung Khanh Musashi Miyamoto.png|Musashi Miyamoto Sir Eugene Albright.jpg|Eugene Albright The guy.jpg|Martin Noriega Marcos.jpg|Marcos Anatoly Federov.png|Anatoly Federov demon .png|Andras Amitiel.jpg|Amitiel Ace Merill.jpg|Scott Merill Tomoshi Itukumi.jpg|Tomoshi Itukumi real astaroth.jpg|Niloofar Moradhaseli Deana Fitzalan-Howard.jpg|Deanna Fitzalan-Howard An-Mei Hsu.png|An-Mei Hsu Kamuy Fuchi.jpg|Kamuy Fuchi Nagato.png|Nagato Astaroth.png|Anzu Kanzaki Mitsuru.jpg|Mitsuru Julianne.jpg|Julianne Rory.jpg|Rory Holtzmann.png|Holtzmann Johannes.png|Johannes Ali.png|Ali Category:Fanon Organizations